How To Write Your First Story

If you've ever wanted to write a story, or a particular story is giving you trouble, here's some tips and approaches that might help.

Writing your first story, whether it's short fiction or something longer, is tough. I hope these tips can help you get started.

Remember, your story doesn't have to be perfect, in fact, the first draft doesn't even have to be good at all. It just needs to be written. Once that's done, you can worry about improving it later.

Thanks for watching!

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[opollitico]

Hey Kieren, any advice for chronic underwriters? Transparency: I have asked other YouTubers this too, but I would love to hear your contribution too! The question is this - what exactly is a chapter, what is a “scene” and what do I do if they’re too short? Pretty basic stuff it seems like, but the more I write, the more I find the concept of “scenes” and “chapters” challenging

[smg]

When I write my story, thinking about the whole story, or at least a lot of the story, overwhelms me way too much to the point where i'm scared to write, fearing i'll not be satisfied with the end result. However, what I think is the best thing for me to do is to focus on 1 scene at a time. That way, i'm doing something productive and it motivates me to want to write more scenes in the future. When thinking about the whole story, the plot points always show up first with the action and external events but, when you only focus on just 1 scene to write, you have more to think about. The characters, their desires, fears, misbelief and hobbies, other side characters and their desires, fears, misbelief and hobbies, the setting and focusing on why every decision made matters to the characters.

If I focused on writing the whole of chapter 1, yeah i'll understand some of the plot points that happen but, when I focus on scene 1, I'll understand the characters a lot more and the whole chapter will become much clearer to traverse through.

[evastrgar]

This helpes a lot. I just found your channel and I think this is the only channel that helped me the most with the process of writing.

[mo_mo]

Starting with a moment is everything. I’m a writer and journalist and it takes time to find that moment, that lede but once you do you find your way and it feels so good. Sometimes that moment ends up somewhere else in the story come the edit, but by then you are in a completely different place. Nice video, thank you.

[noreenmcnair]

I love your advise. I’ve been taking notes for stories for fifty years. Now I’m writing. I listen to your channel and appreciate your ideas.

[ADSmallAuthor]

Great video, that gets to the nuts and bolts of creating a story. Thank you for sharing.

[mixterdee]

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Welcome back!!! Missed your videos!!!!

[cliffordurmaza]

Love "How do you eat an elephant..." Gonna put that one above my writing space. Your videos are a nice respite from my day job. Thank you!

[corjaydrew]

Hi I find your channel useful. I love reading books, but never came to me today that I would also love to write. I have been watching your video for a bout a month to help start writing. Thank you😊

[mymiseducationblog]

I love and am proud of the first story I wrote, a novella called “All Souls’ Day.” Its a coming-of-age story that follows a gloomy 12-year-old boy Jose Perez as he ponders the meaning of death when his classmate Miguel drowns. Haunted by his absence and the uncertainty of life, Jose is consumed with thoughts of losing his loved ones. To escape his anxiety he and his best friend Benji go to a haunted house the night after Halloween where the scary thrills of the attraction trigger the memory of Miguel’s funeral. Running out in tears, he encounters Carlos, the school bully, who chases him and Benji all the way to a cemetery. Pushed to prove he’s not a coward, Jose enters the cemetery, but once inside the voice of an otherworldly being making a strange request sends everyone running. This ghostly encounter sets off a dangerous mission and the plans of an ambitious yet crazed scientist whom Jose must stop to fulfill his promise to a dead boy.

If you’re interested in reading it it’s available on my blog under Fiction. www.mymiseducation.org
I also put it up on Amazon Kindle

[SeanIanJacobson]

Been waiting for another video! This is excellent!

[StellarSTLR]

Elephant analogies are always a good thing. Elephants are awesome!

[chelseachappelle]

Overwhelmed of the excitement is my exact obstacle. 😅

[jillstrickland]

Thank you, this is great information!

[CatherineBednar]

Adore💕 both you and your Shares Many thanks

[opollitico]

Wondered where you’d got to ! Great vid

[Thundering_Orchestra]

I just started writing my first story using some of your advice. Your advice is vivid and easy to understand. Great videos keep the amazing up the videos ❤. Here's a short piece of writing that I might turn into a longer story. I used someone your advice

RAINDROPS

The rain fell, piercing the silence of the night with a symphony of riffles. The sky fell in waves like velveteen, draping the sky in a sparkling twilight. However, something was lurking in the shadows. Something sinister.

A deer approached the river, its wary heart beating rapidly. It had suspicions, but its ever-grown thirst had to be quenched. It slowly stepped foot within the shallow shore, it inhaled, and it exhaled he let his worries mix in the flowing breeze. But fear trembled the deer’s spine as he witnessed the creature rising The predator had been awakened from its lair. It realized the presence of the lurking predator, like a mortal man facing a demon from the depths of hell.

The deer turned backward and leaped, it tried to flee, its hooves pounding against the damp earth, but it was no match for the crocodile's lightning-fast strike.  The deer's eyes widened in terror as it struggled to escape this abominable nightmare of reality. With a swift and merciless motion, the crocodile clamped its powerful jaws around the deer's legs, but it was all in vain. The crocodile sank its teeth, deep into the deer's legs restricting further movement. It sank it down, deep within the waters.

As the deer drowned, its cries grew faint. But for a brief moment, the crocodile had released its grip, and the deer felt a heap of relief,  But this moment of respite was short-lived, as the crocodile struck again, aiming for the deer's neck. Desperate to escape the clutches of the merciless predator, the deer thrashed and kicked, its hooves flailing in a hopeless attempt to free itself. But the crocodile's grip was unrelenting, its powerful jaws locked in a vice-like hold. With a final, agonizing cry, the deer succumbed to its gruesome fate, its life force slowly ebbing away.

The crocodile feasted on the deer's mangled corpse, tearing into its flesh with savage delight. The once serene river now ran red with blood. The deer, now nothing more than a lifeless carcass, let out a final cry of anguish and misery, with its voice echoing through the night.

[nehukybis]

What I'm going to say is mostly for novels, though maybe it applies to short stories, on a smaller scale.
I've been given this advice: you should never include a scene that doesn't advance the main plot. Never include a scene "just for character development". It's good advice. But when it comes to the first chapter (or your first paragraph, in short fiction) maybe the theme and tone of the story are more important than the plot?
In my last novel, the opening line described what one of the main characters was doing in the moment. But at the same time, it was a metaphor for what she was doing with her life. The first chapter focused on this one character. You got to know what her biggest responsibilities, fears and struggles were, through the lens of the crisis she was going through at that moment. And it all supported the tone and philosophy of the novel.
And there's no way I could have written that chapter in my first draft, because I didn't really know what the novel was about when I started. I'm not saying I was unprepared. I'm saying, you can spend hours preparing for a blind date, but you're never going to know much about them until after you've met.

[willname]

I write, but it always sucks it don't come alive. I think I have a good storyline, but it sounds like crap when I reread it

[vstwiru]

Hi Kieren, I’m thinking about getting back into writing myself, watching this video has given me some inspiration too. I always seem to struggle with the opening page, I actually started a story before but never finished it but watching this video has made me want to finish it. Would you suggest getting people to proofread what I’ve done so far?